last night we bought a dishwasher

How crazy is that? Our mail comes once a week from UPS and there we were comparing models and brands and trying to figure out what the big deal about a hidden display was all about.

The truth is that the tenant emailed to report a leak earlier this week. He wasn't sure where it was coming from, but the carpet between the living room and kitchen was wet. We were hoping that maybe it was something going on above, then we could just have them deal with it, but someone came the next day to say they thought it was the dishwasher and an expert confirmed it the day after that. So there we were suddenly trying to figure out what the difference was between a $400 model and a $600 one.

I thought that I was smart by making my first stop to the PG&E website. I figured that there was some possibility that we could get a rebate, and I was correct. It seemed though that there were two levels of rebate - one for $30 and one for $50. It all hinged on this .68 number. A quick comparison on the Internet revealed interestingly enough that some of the level 2 efficiency models were in the same price range as the level 1, so why not get the larger rebate and help the environment a bit more?

So although that narrowed things down a bit, the question remained as to how we could order this from down south and deliver it up north. Also we didn't just want it delivered, we needed it installed and the old machine needed to be hauled away. This quickly eliminated buying from the on-line stores. B didn't think that the maintenance staff at the homeowner's office would install a dishwasher, so that was out - I wasn't about to add finding a plumber to this list (I would ask if the guy suffered from plumber's butt).

BestBuy certainly has a large selection of dishwashers on their site, but it was near impossible to determine which model they were actually selling. And as we were trying to focus on the rebate, this was getting confusing and frustrating. All of BestBuy's details included a snapshot of the bright yellow Energy Star sticker. Only one problem - the number that mattered was no where on it. And just because a model had an Energy Star sticker, didn't mean that it would qualify.

What was even more frustrating is that no site that we looked at allowed you to narrow your search by size of the dishwasher. Everyone had brand, price and color once you selected "built in". We did learn that a couple of brands were simply too deep for our needs and so were able to eliminate them quickly. Still it often left over 100 models to chose from.

Bosch had been given pretty high marks, and all of their dishwashers that qualified for the rebate were level 2. Of course, BestBuy doesn't sell Bosch. We did learn though that Lowes did. And there was even a Lowe's within the 20 radius of the delivery point, so that was seeming like our best bet.

Sears also sold Bosch, but after the refrigerator disaster, I really didn't want to deal with them. So off to Lowes we went. Bonus that there was a BestBuy in the same shopping center, so I figured we could get in and out.

Well, we did get right out of Lowes. B described what we needed and the salesman was a complete jerk. He told us that we needed to go to the actual store that would deliver the dishwasher because we had to sign paperwork. I of course asked if he had ever heard of fax machine. The jerky salesman quipped back that it was a CONTRACT. B grabbed me before I explained the merits of FedEx and caused a scene and we drove over to BestBuy.

Despite the 100+ dishwashers I had to chose from on 'Internets', there were maybe a dozen on display at the store. One of the things I noticed on the website was that if you bought a dishwasher over $499 AT THE STORE, they would install it for free. Then of course there was a sign that said if you spent $299 on a dishwasher (which basically meant anyone on display) they would install it for free. When I tried to get a straight answer from the sales people, it seemed that you had to spend the extra $200 to get them to do a complete install and haul away, $299 only got the dishwasher to your kitchen - maybe. It still isn't clear if you paid for a model that was only online AT THE STORE, if the deal applied.

They had a model that was a level 2 rebate qualifier, but it was $699. Also neither of the two people who were assisting us had ever done something like we were requesting, and I was getting anxious about the whole thing. These people were nice, but a bit dense. At one point (just after B told her what we needed to do) the woman tried to sell B an opened box dishwasher, so he had to explain again that we were having it delivered in northern California. I hated to admit it, but maybe we should go to Sears. The Boshe dishwasher I was interested in was less than the one there. Plus now I had names if anything were to go wrong.

We took the long way to Sears, sort of unknowlingly. We found a parking space and both had the same thought how it felt like we were at the Barton Springs Mall in Austin, Texas where we purchased flooring (both carpet and linoleum) for this same property several years back. Overall that went well.

We went downstairs and found the dishwasher and then tried to find a sales person. I forgot that these guys specialize. So there are fridge people and dishwasher people. The dishwasher person was on the phone having to talk to a manager about a problem about something that sounded similar to what we were about to do. My stomach did a brief flip. At least this guy was making progress and trying to prevent disaster.

Another sales person approached us, but once I explained that I knew people, and how awful our previous experience had been, he wanted nothing to do with it as he was a fridge guy. Really I don't think I am a bad customer - I just know what I want. I didn't blame him, and was actual thankful that he didn't try to take on something he wasn't qualified to handle. He did at least know that this would be a local delivery and not Sears national delivery, which is what caused the nightmare last time.

We ordered the dishwasher. It should be with the installer tomorrow. I am really hoping this goes off without any problems. We got white, by the way. That was harder than it should have been. The old one is black, but it never really did anything for the kitchen. We considered Biscuit for a moment as the cabinets are off-white, but the new fridge which Sears finally did locate and deliver is white, so I figured it would balance things out.

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